(l-r) Alex Pla, New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority producer and Rich Carlino, department director/managerRUTHERFORD, N.J.
In the sports and entertainment facility business you're always looking at newer, better and more creative ways to deliver content to your captive audience. With stadium and arena LED video boards getting better, larger and more diverse, the pressure is on for facility operators to be more creative and deliver high-quality video content to these displays.
The New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority, which oversees the operation of Giants Stadium and the Izod Center here, has achieved that goal with the addition of some new tools. These include two Nucomm CamPac 2 wireless camera transmitters and two Newscaster DR diversity receivers.
Before selecting the Nucomm equipment we performed our due diligence by investigating a large amount of equipment on the market and by arranging demos in our sports venues under actual crowd conditions.
THE NOISE WALL
With television, radio, facility operations, security, concessions and others all adding to the RF clutter, some systems just couldn't climb over the noise. Frankly we were thrilled when it came time to evaluate the Nucomm gear. Their systems were able to deliver the goods and then some.
The first Nucomm demo was during a New Jersey Nets basketball game. We could tell right away that this system was different than any other we'd seen. We had the camera operator walk around the entire Izod Center and observed that there were only two areas where we didn't have a rock solid signal—inside a freight elevator and outside the arena with the doors closed.
The New Jersey Nets were extremely happy with the performance, and our producer and director were already thinking of creative ways to utilize the Nucomm system. (An earlier system here required a second person to assist in transmitting the signal upstairs to the control room and we always had to deal with line of sight issues and signal breakup.) The Nucomm gear has easily gotten us around the line of sight restriction, as it provides a reliable, clear signal from nearly limitless camera positions. We're able to get locker room shots, concourse camera views directly beneath the receive site and from anywhere in the crowd seating area. These used to be challenges, but no more with Nucomm.
The Nucomm equipment is really built for the field. It's lightweight and has a very intuitive, menu-driven operating system with a selectable range of frequencies. It's also very generous in terms of battery life.
As I think about the Nucomm system, one word comes to mind—reliability. The New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority used to have to sweat out certain camera shots when using other wireless systems. We'd cross our fingers in hopes that the shot would stabilize and that it wouldn't break up freeze.
Our tenants, the New York Giants, New York Jets, New York Red Bulls and New Jersey Nets, are all thrilled with the system's performance. Without a doubt, the Nucomm wireless equipment has been the best performing and best received upgrade that the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority has purchased to date.
Rich Carlino is director of Multimedia Productions at the Meadowlands Sports Complex, which is overseen by the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority. He is 25 year veteran in the stadium/arena management business and has been involved it more than 3,700 events during his career. He may be contacted atrcarlino@njsea.com.
For additional information contact Nucomm at 908-852-3700 or visitwww.nucomm.com.
